White House accuses news organizations of 'elevating' North Korea's profile

Following President Donald Trump's unprecedented
acceptance of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's offer to meet,
reporters asked the White House why Trump would grant such a
meeting, suggesting it would improperly amplify the regime's
profile.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
suggested that news organizations were partly to blame for
"elevating" North Korea's status.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics, several news reports
compared White House senior adviser and first daughter Ivanka
Trump to Kim Yo-jung, Kim Jong-un's sister. Both women made
appearances at the Games in Pyeongchang.

Asked during a Friday press briefing why President Donald Trump
would indicate his willingness to meet with North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un - given the North's track record of human-rights
violations and general misbehavior - Sanders said that she was
"glad" the reporter brought the question up.

"Just a couple of weeks ago, a lot of members in the press were
actually elevating North Korea and some of the members of the
regime in comparing them to people in the United States and in
this administration," Sanders said. "I think that is actually
what put North Korea on a similar stage."

"No action by this administration has even remotely demonstrated
a level of rise that the media did during the Olympics and
through some of those stories," Sander continued.

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Sanders was apparently referencing a comparison made between
Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump, and Kim
Yo-jung, Kim Jong-un's sister. During the 2018 Winter Olympics in
South Korea, both Ivanka and Kim Yo-jung were part of a
delegation for their respective countries to South Korea.

As Ivanka took part in various diplomatic meetings, including
briefing South Korean President Moon Jae-in, several US and South
Korean media organizations published articles that compared
Ivanka and Kim Yo-jung. The North Korean leader's sister took
part in separate diplomatic engagements apart from Ivanka Trump.

Later, some reports suggested Kim Yo-jung
took on the role of "North Korea's Ivanka."

Asked by NBC News host Peter Alexander if the comparison was
fair, Ivanka shrugged off the suggestion in February: "I don't
think so," Ivanka said. "I would far prefer to be compared to my
sisters here in South Korea who are thriving in this incredible
democracy."

On Thursday, South Korean officials made a stunning announcement that
Trump had agreed to meet with Kim Jong-un. A time and place are
not yet publicly known.

President Moon praised the outcome through his spokesperson,
saying a future US-North Korea meeting "will be recorded as a
historic milestone that realized peace on the Korean Peninsula."